Guns 'n' Roses in south Vietnam

Vietnam has been one of the world’s fashionable tourist destinations for a number of years now. But it holds such a wealth of fascination in its history, landscape and culture that it remains a country not to be missed.

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is the commercial capital of a country rushing headlong to embrace consumerism. Every young Vietnamese man is desperate to own the Honda Dream and get the girl.

Saigon, the central district of the city, has swanky shops and hotels but you can still turn around and see a woman defecating on the pavement.

Walking down Dong Khoi you are at times eerily transferred to colonial Vietnam, or a town in France or Italy.

But I don't think either the compadres of Somerset Maugham or the GIs of the 1960s and 70s would recognise their former stamping ground.

The gates of the Reunification Palace are however clearly recognisable from the photos of tanks bursting through them at the end of the war.

Outside the historic centre tall and narrow new buildings line the streets in an attempt to mitigate a street-frontage tax.

At the fiercely anti-American War Remnants Museum it is a matter of forcing yourself to look at the photography of war tragedy. Learning more about the "American War" is an essential part of any visit to Vietnam.

A trip out to the Cu Chi tunnels is a popular excursion from HCMC. Crawling through the network created by the Vietcong in their struggle against the south is an eye-opening - and back-breaking - experience.

Small sections of the tunnels have been widened to fit the larger frames of western tourists but the claustrophobia and sheer physical exertion required for moving through the tunnels is incredible.

Here people fought, gave birth, lived and died for years while their country was convulsed by war.

The chance to shoot period weapons at a mini firing range was an opportunity I found too tempting to resist.

The Mekong Delta has a unique charm - look up from your boat ride through the water-coconut palm fronds to see a straight-backed girl in a luminously white ao dai traditional costume cycling sedately across an arching bridge.

The question is how do they keep their clothes so pristinely clean?

In this, the country's rice bowl, mechanised agriculture means that three crops per year are now churned out.

This may be unromantic but it is certainly productive and Vietnam is now the second-highest exporter of rice in the world.

A highlight of a visit to the Delta is the early morning floating markets near the town of Can Tho.

Our boat edged its way quietly into the centre of hundreds of deftly-manoeuvred craft and I settled down to watch the action.

Each 'shop' boat has a long bamboo pole waving in the breeze - threaded with specimens of the fruit and vegetables on sale.

Smaller craft moved from shop to shop, two long oars wielded deftly by a standing consumer. The boats barely seemed to touch as goods were viewed and transactions carried out and carried away home.

It wasn't long before an enterprising Vietnamese offered the tourists slices of delicious freshly cut pineapple and dragon-fruit - one of the many pleasures of a holiday in Vietnam.